Create a Healthy Lifestyle One Step at a Time

5. Create a Healthy Lifestyle One Step at a Time

“Respect your path, your journey, and the habits it took to get you there.”

—Will Maloney

Xponential Fitness

Podcast Transcription

Michael Kurland:

Hello, I’m Michael Kurland, CEO and Co-Founder of Branded Group. Welcome to the #BeBetter Podcast. To me, our company’s mantra to “Be Better” is more than a tagline; it’s a culture that permeates our organization, propelling our team to Be Better to each other, our customers and our communities as well as to ourselves. Each week on the #BeBetter podcast, I interview leaders who authentically exemplify how they are being better in their professional and personal lives.

Today’s podcast is dedicated to the students at Brownson Technical School in Anaheim, California. Branded Group was privileged to award a full scholarship to one of its students to enable them to pursue their studies to become a certified HVAC technician. Learn more about how you can get involved at https://brownson.edu/.

Michael Kurland:

Welcome to another episode of the BeBetter podcast. I am your host, Michael Kurland. We started this podcast recently to interview people that are just doing things better in their own industries. So today my guest is Will Maloney. He has been my personal trainer for, I want to say almost five years now. It’s been that long. He brings such a different thought process to being a trainer. I’m going to let you talk a little bit more about that. We’ll want you introduce yourself and what it is exactly you do.

Will Maloney (00:48):

Thanks Mike. I’ve been in this business for a little bit and I came across a health and fitness and performance back when I was a young guy in my early teenage years when I had my own health issues that I needed to figure out. With my own testing and trying and direction choosing I got ground and then I decided to make it official. So I began my certification when I was 19. That progressed all the way through being fortunate to work with companies like Equinox Fitness and being able to work and being mentored by the head coaches from USA Olympics in the weightlifting category, to coaches in Australia through a company called King Sports International, which they are the early pioneers of the strength and conditioning field back in the early seventies and all the way through to current where I was spending many times and  many years with Equinox Fitness as an educator and also a coach and a trainer there. There’s been some journeys along the way, bumping shoulders with some head coaches, from a strength conditioning team with the Lakers, and also getting a chance to spend and being mentored by some New York Times best sellers in the category of self-development and personal development. So I’ve been fortunate with some of the people that have come my way and they were willing to share what I would need to learn. I’m here to share some best practices that I’ve gathered from their experiences in my own lens.

Michael Kurland (02:19):

You were just such an easy thought process to bring you on the show because we say, I say, trainer, but you actually refer to yourself as a health advisor, which I think is such a cool way to describe what you do. It’s not just the personal training aspect. Obviously with that resume, you just went through years of experience and the people that you’ve come across are amazing. So tell me a little bit more about health adviser and how you came up with that. That’s interesting.

Will Maloney (02:52):

So the health advisor came from just that I saw as a need. When I started and I got my paper in the mail that said I was officially a personal trainer at the age of 19, that was the start. What I started to see as time went on was that there was a lot more to it than lifting weights and being in the gym when it came to health. I think that I just saw that. I don’t think that other people do, but, but I started. There was a need to expand what I would be able to do in terms of giving people guidance. It came from initially being a very good instructor and being able to tell people to do point A and point B and step one and step two.

Will Maloney (03:30):

But I still was a fiend in terms of getting results. I wanted people to get the results. It just wasn’t seeing what I thought would get the results. So as the years unfolded and I was fortunate to fall into the wings and the mentorship and coaching of industry leaders and seeing how I can continue to show people the simplicity of health, but that doesn’t mean easy as we’ve definitely crossed that bridge. Many times simple does not mean easy. I saw it. It was really just a need. So I thought, well, why not be able to offer more than just being in the gym? Why not be able to offer people what they should be putting in their mouth, what they should be doing for recovering and recharging. Also there’s the whole other aspect of how their social and their life affects their body.

Will Maloney (04:17):

So the health advisor came as a need and I positioned it and it came to fruition because if I say like a health advisor, just as curious as you are about it, the best way I can describe it as like a financial advisor. So we have someone that goes that we go to help manage our financial capital, our investment portfolio. So we understand that because it’s been around for a while. But health advisor that one I put the TM on that one, so it was a royalty on that one. So I hope this show gets to a lot of people, because my royalty account’s going to go up a lot. So that’s where it came in terms of a reference point.  I thought there’s all this time and effort and energy in terms of what we’re doing to put towards our financial capital.

Will Maloney (05:06):

And yet the financial capital only is there iff the health is there. So the health was the base. The health has to be there. I mean everyone knows that if they don’t feel good on a given day that their work performance that day is horrible. So that’s just a small snippet in terms of the impact that health has in terms of how we perform and how we are better to the thesis of the podcast and the show and the premise to the company culture. So that’s what I used was a financial advisor as a reference point. So I said, instead of managing financial assets, I’m managing your health assets, being everything from what you do to move and how you improve and how you sleep and how you eat and how your wellbeing is, and the list can go on. That way I can see all the angles. As a result, when I can see all the angles from my own education and training that I’ve had, which is deep, therefore I can help people put together a health portfolio in the same context that people would put together a financial portfolio.

Michael Kurland (06:05):

From my perspective like I said earlier, we’ve worked together almost five years and I’ve never had a trainer tell me eat that 20% of a cake, your 80/ 20 rule with the 80% good, 20% bad. Because it’s just not sustainable to keep doing a hundred percent all the time, as you’ve said, and you have a lot of cool analogies. Like there’s no gas in the tank, you gotta put some money back in and debit the account and all those things over the years you might think are counterintuitive to what a health advisor or a personal trainer does. But at the same time I’m working with you five years. At one point I don’t have any more head had abs[JC1] . I also, I’m in the best shape of my life. I can run for miles. You know, I have these flare ups of back pain. You help me work through them. What you got going on with this health advisor health portfolio, it seems to be working well. So for at least for me, and I’m sure with all your other clients, you’ve been able to expand out and do your own thing. So with all your other clients you must be doing well, right.

Will Maloney (07:20):

It’s the thing that I had mentioned earlier, where I became at an early stage obsessed with the results. I think that came from my own pursuit in health would start it, like I said, when I was young and I wanted to get better. So then I realized how much better that made me feel. I said, “Shoot, I’m not going to keep this to myself.” I want other people to be able to experience that. So then I just sat in. Now I sit in as a tour guide. If you want to know all the best ways to manage your resources, when it comes to health, then I can say, “Hey, try this spot, try that spot. Your experience will be your experience.”  I can’t give people those experiences, but I can definitely point them in the right direction so that they don’t have to spend any more of the resources, time, money, or energy.

Will Maloney (08:03):

Consequently the result is being able to guide people and help them take the right steps that are right for them. The majority of the time they know what they need to do. It’s just making sure that they’ve got the support and they’ve got the guidance of saying, this is where you can make your investment. Yes, the results do the talking. That’s, what’s great because the results solidified that investment that they’ve made. At the same time, they know they did it and it had nothing to do with me. That’s what I always make clear is the results aren’t up to me.  It’s always up to the individual in terms of how much they want to get out of it. The other great thing about that is when people look at the progress they make with their health and as they’re getting better, there is there’s no limit depending on how much they want to invest in it.

Michael Kurland (08:46):

Just to lastly, wrap that up is. We spend half of our time during our sessions, whether they’re in person or on a Zoom call talking about recipes and where to shop and you’re not one of those trainers that’s a yeller. I’ve experienced those in the past, but do one more, come on, come on. I guess that works as well, but you’ve always taken it from a different angle and I’ve always appreciated it and thought it was better. So thank you. I want to dive into this question. What are you curious about right now? Like what, what is keeping your mind going?

Will Maloney (09:33):

Well, piggyback off and then tie it into your question, with the training out there and how people approach their health. I realized that there were 23 hours more in the day outside of the one hour that was being had in the gym. So I thought, boy, that’s a lot of time to not have any sort of guidance. So it was like, you really go in the wrong direction quick after that one hour. With that, was a level of curiosity. What are people doing with those other 23 hours? That’s when I started to open up the health advisory, a role that I created that category to really help navigate those decisions outside of those 23 hours or outside of that hour for the other 23 hours a day. So that’s one, but I’d say the part that is really becoming very curious for me is how did I get where I am?

Will Maloney (10:21):

And I know that sounds very esoteric, but what I mean specifically is, how is it that I have been, I put myself in the position I am right now, what are those habits in a sense that led me up to this point that I decided. What are the choices that I made and why did I choose those? I know that sometimes people will hear somebody say that, like, boy, it sounds like you get a lot of time on your hands, but I don’t. I’m a father. I’m the breadwinner of the house. So this there’s no excuse. I think when people create an excuse, it’s just, they don’t want to go down that road and find out, well, how did I get here? Because if you can find out how you got here, then there’s a good chance that you can plot a better choice or better decisions or I don’t want to say better, but necessarily different decisions if you want a different experience. That won’t start until you can really say, how did I get here? So that’s where I’ve been spending a lot of my time personally is understanding that, having that appreciation for the curiosity of my habits.

Michael Kurland (11:19):

I watched a movie the other day and it was something similar to what you were saying. It was the Benjamin Button. Have you ever seen that? But there was a part in that movie where they replayed the girl getting hit by the car and the whole thing was like, if she had just had not. The woman hadn’t left her keys on her desk and if the cabbie had a paid attention, right. So it kind of in theory what you’re saying. There’s all these things that get you to where you’re at and how do you unravel them? If you’re not in a place you want to be to be better and get to that point. So I like what you’re saying. I recently read a book, “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. We’ve talked about him, that you’ve said you’ve come across in some circles, correct?

Will Maloney (12:10):

Yes. I never met him formally, but I’ve interacted with James informally through a lot of his messages and he’s good. He’s good about directly responding. I’ve connected with him with a couple of people. I love his content because it’s just cut from the same point where I’m coming from in terms of habits. What’s great is just taking a 20,000 foot view on this and stepping back is that everyone’s gotten their angle on something. I think what’s great is to circle them in, instead of saying, well, this is how I do it. You know, I think when you can circle people in, then it’s like that saying when the tide rises, it floats all boats. So you know what? I do things from a different perspective than James, of course, but that’s not because I need to differentiate myself. It’s because it’s just how I see it. But when with the two of us come together or when more perspectives come together, it raises that whole situation up for everyone. It elevates the game. So he he’s been a big proponent these days in terms of habit development.

Michael Kurland (13:10):

I’ve read his book and you guys definitely have different perspectives and do different things. But the one thing I can say is relatable is his whole thing is take baby steps and just get 1% better every day. You don’t need to be able to power lift 500 pounds on your second down on the training. You build up to it. But if you take those small steps every day and you get 1% better, eventually this habit becomes part of your fabric of your life. Then you can build from there, which is similar to what I think you kind of preach to me at least is, 80/20, just have a little bit of cake today, a little less cake tomorrow.

Will Maloney (13:51):

It’s about that sustainability, which the thing that I’ve talked about with you and my other clients there. We all have a certain amount of, of energy reserve in us in our direction. It’s basically  how are you going to utilize it and dispense that, or just use it in an efficient way. When someone tries to step up to bat and they want to hit a home run, and they’ve never picked up a bat before, they’re going to spend a lot of energy. So the likelihood of them putting that down and never picking that bat up again is very high. Whereas if they just picked up the bat and felt it, and they put it back down, they’ve got a much better chance of picking it back up again, and maybe even turning it into a swing.

Will Maloney (14:32):

So taking that example, and then going back to what you asked me about curiosity and habits, and then seeing how none of us just were born and all of a sudden we walked. If that person’s out there, I’d love to meet you. It’s all habit. In physiology, we call that muscle memory, and those are all just one little tiny motor pattern overlays over another, and it syncs up with other ones and it talks to the leg and it talks to the shoulder. The next thing you know, you’re standing up. So I think for us, when we look at actions or events or circumstances or goals, whatever that may be that we want to accomplish, we think we can just go after them based on our track record. Like, Hey, I’m walking, I’ve made it this far. Well, it’s what’s to stop me that I can’t, but you haven’t respected your own path.

Will Maloney (15:16):

You haven’t respected your own journey and the fact that it took a lot of habits to get you there. It took a lot of things that you’re not even aware of to get you there. So for us to simply think we can just hammer it out, it’s not paying respect to that and paying respect to that means understanding that it took energy to spread out over the long haul. So that’s the biggest thing that I see when people are trying to change habits. They try to turn them too quickly, too soon, and they don’t pay the fact that there’s years that have occurred. Not that it’s contingent upon time, it’s layers of habits, layers upon layers upon layers that have gone into building that. So in order for a new habit to take place and to be better than the journey is going to be similar. It’s just dependent upon what habit you’re deciding. You’re going to choose.

Michael Kurland (16:02):

I mean, to speak to that, from my perspective, just from a training point of view, when we met, you had to undo some of my bad habits that were not stretching forever and having the tightest quads and hamstrings in the world. Five years later, I mean, they’re still pretty tight, but I’ve developed the habits that I’ve been able to run and get the back pain and all those things. So I can say that, yes, you practice what you preach. So I wanted to ask you what motivates you to be better?

Will Maloney (16:38):

I love that because it segues right into what you said, that I appreciate what you’re saying, practice what you preach. I think that it’s being able to back up what I’m saying, then I can tell people or recommend to people or even anything coming out of my mouth.  I don’t know where that came from. Again, curiosity about my habits and where things came from. That’ll be one I’ll put on my list and figure out what was the genesis of me wanting to still stand strong and the belief of practicing what you preach, who knows? But I think that has to do with integrity if I were to get anywhere close to why I would stand by that. I think to say that I can, I won’t have a client do something if I can’t do it. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t, and haven’t trained high performance athletes that have outperforming, but that’s okay. That’s what they want to do. That’s not what I want to do. So I would say it’s the practicing what you preach and putting that as a strong piece in terms of who I am, because if I can’t do it, then I’m not gonna have somebody else do it.

Michael Kurland (17:37):

I am a huge proponent of that as well. When I started Branded Group about six years ago, I made sure that the first employees were the ones that I would get on the floor and get on the phone. I’d make the phone calls too and show them I can do customer service and I could do accounting. It’s a level of respect. Like you said practice what you preach, show them that you’re not asking them to do anything that you can’t do yourself. So I think it definitely garners that respect and from me, from my point of view, I definitely have a boatload of respect for you. So being able to watch you, and then I’ve seen you do your stretches and do your workouts, that when we were at Equinox and you do practice what you preach.

Will Maloney (18:22):

It’s not going to help if I’m like, Hey, go do that and you’re like, how do I do it? I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know, figure it out, figure it out. I can’t touch my toes. You go figure it out.

Michael Kurland (18:33):

I still can’t touch. Well, I can, but it’s tough. It’s tough, but so I want it. This is one thing that I’ve been focusing on in 2020, and especially with this pandemic that’s going on, it’s been a little bit more difficult, but I’ve been trying to focus on being better to myself this year and taking a lot of time for self-care. How are you being better to yourself?

Will Maloney (18:54):

That’s a great question because without getting esoteric, the question of better deserves a little bit of extra review and what being better means. One thing that I realized is that in many cases, when I think about being better, and I say this to my kids is I’m saying, well, what’s wrong with right now? Where I’ve been spending a lot of time recently is being better at appreciating what I do have. The thing that is true about that I’ve seen from my lens is that when you appreciate what you have and you get better at that, then all of a sudden, this need to wanting to be better, starts to subside and the pressure eases. Then things just naturally unfold in a direction where you’re like.

Will Maloney (19:49):

You didn’t have to do much to move in that direction because you focused on being better at what you’re doing right now. I said this to my kids last night. I wanted them to look out their window. I said, Hey, look, it’s a beautiful night sky. I showed them the moon and we’re all looking at it differently, we’re all hearing the different perspectives about how great it is. I said, well, if you wake up tomorrow and it’s rainy or it’s sunny, what would you prefer? What would be better? They took a little bit to think about it. Then they finally said that sunny would be better. I said, okay. I said, well, what if it’s raining? Does that mean that you are not going to be good?

Will Maloney (20:24):

And now you’re upset because that’s the case. They’re like, well, yeah. I’m like, well, someone spent a lot of time, like 13 million years. It’s this thing called father time and mother nature. They spent a lot of time putting that together for you. So you think that they’re going to appreciate the fact that you don’t, aren’t thankful for the fact that they had to figure out rain. So all of a sudden you can see their eyes were like deer in headlights. I was taking them pretty far, but I boiled it back down to appreciate what you have right now, because you just don’t know when you’re going to have it. So I’ve recently become much more focused on being better in the moment right now and appreciating that moment. One other last bit on that is I knew I was in the direction that I wanted to go because there was a documentary that featured the Chicago bulls, and then the last episode, episode 10, without giving it away, if anyone hasn’t seen it yet.

Will Maloney (21:17):

There’s just a one liner that Jordan talks about. Again, you’re looking at someone that accomplished and in his world, what he wanted to accomplish and was I would say at the pinnacle of being better in terms of using that as a model. The last episode, I thought they saved the best for last, there was this mantra about him, just not worrying about what’s going to happen. If he gets to the free throw line and the shot goes in and out, why worry about something that I don’t know how it’s gonna turn out. So his mantra and I think with a lot of the people that have helped him cultivate that mantra, whether he knew he was doing it consciously or subconsciously or unconsciously, was to be there, just be there in that moment and be the best that you can do and be the best that you can be in that moment.

Will Maloney (22:03):

It’s interesting how much of a challenge that is because you think of the obligations and the schedules and the people that you are supporting and just the connections you have at work. How can I just focus on being, right now? I’ve got these things to do, and it does take practice.  I’m along the road. I’m making progress myself. So that way it helps when I figure it out, just as I figured out in my health journey, Hey, I did this. Here’s something you can try.

Michael Kurland

It sounds like you’re speaking a little bit about gratitude here, which is definitely something that I practice. Gratitude journal. I did that for a while. That’s been on hold with like I said, with the pandemic. Have you ever done a gratitude journal?

Will Maloney (22:50):

I’ve never written it down in terms of gratitude.  Anything I write down, it’s just something that comes to me where I’m like, that’s great. I write it down and then I expand on it. In terms of daily practice, gratitude, it’s as of right now, and then it has been recently growing.  It’s a moment of gratitude every second, you know? So there’s even moments where if you think something isn’t going your way, which I don’t know if that’s ever happened to anybody else, but if it’s not going your way, a practice that I’ve been getting into, which I know that this statement doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with health, but I’ll bring it all into health is when it’s not going your way to take a moment and just say, thanks, no complaints. It’s interesting what that does in terms of taking the pressure of your expectations of how it should go versus how it’s just happening right now.

Will Maloney (23:39):

When you remove the fact of how it should go and just see how it is, then you know how to play a better role in it. What that does is physiologically, it takes all this load off your body. Like, Oh my God, I got to go make this happen. I gotta crush this. I gotta do this. There’s this tension that builds up in our physiology and our muscles. Then we wonder why when we go to stretch, we’re like, I’m tight. You know? It’s just been a little bit of those going back into habits. A little bit of that. Think about how often that happens in a given day, like something doesn’t go your way and you react, why is this not going the way I want? Then you compound that over a day and then series of months and weeks and years. Then people wonder why their health has gone in a direction that they did not want. They’re surprised as to why it’s there. When you manage your health, then you become more adaptable to these things. It also gives you a different perspective about how to play a role in the situations. Like I said, when they don’t go your way,

Michael Kurland (24:34):

That’s great. That’s great information. I can tell you I’ve been on both sides of having too much expectation and things, not going my way, because I’ve set this expectation that was in my own mind, and then being disappointed at an outcome that I had nothing to do with, right? I just expected this outcome. I had no way of having any control over it. Then I was all tense or upset about it. That was the old me before I transformed and moved out here. Now that I’m here, I try not to have expectations of people. At least not my own, because you cannot control what anybody else does. So you tend to be disappointed if you do have those expectations of people or places or things that you have no control over then, to your point, you end up having the tightest, hamstrings and quads in the world.

Will Maloney (25:27):

If you think about it, if you try to control everything outside of you, then you got a big to do list, right? If you can just control the ship or the car you’re driving yourself, then your odds for success are a lot higher when it comes to health and everything else that you’re doing. You certainly can’t control how things are going to happen completely outside of you. But when you do it on the inside, like you said, for example, if I’m thinking, Oh boy, you know, I don’t know if this call is going to go well and I’m not sure. I can’t control any of that. All I control is how we’re hanging out and chatting here, but physiologically by doing that, I’m putting a lot of attention on my brain. so all this blood is going up there for this whole call, if I’m thinking that.

Will Maloney (26:10):

As a result, there’s just this surge of energy. Then I can get off the call and be like, what is my next step? That’s my point is I’m trying to control how the call is going to go. Other than just me being who I am. It’s just such a sigh of relief physiologically. So that’s how I started to see, for example, this is important that I understand this when it comes to health. Because if I’m not addressing this with clients that I’m definitely leaving a lot on the table in terms of developing their health capital.

Michael Kurland (26:44):

I always say you can only control your actions and your reactions. I’ve definitely fallen victim to setting expectations again and having those tense muscles in my neck and blood rushing to parts of my body. But, I try and just live and I love what you said before about just living in the moment and just being present. That’s also something that I wish I could say I did it all the time. I get my, my Sunday update from Apple telling me how much screen time and I’m on five and a half hours. My average screen time. It’s way too much. Definitely not living in the moment, but things I try and practice. I’m not getting to them as much as I’d like to, for sure.

Will Maloney (27:32):

I know that I’ve heard people say, be present and being in the moment, live in the moment for God for I don’t know how long – my whole life. Again, back to habits and being better in layers. Think about how long I’ve heard that. Think about how long you’ve heard somebody say that and it’s clicking and when it clicks, you’re like, why was that so freaking simple? Why did I not pay attention to that before? I think we have in the process of being better, we should expect to have some set expectations to a certain degree that things are not going to go our way. When they do and I always love that actually. I sound like sadistic when I say that, but I love it when it doesn’t go my way, because I know that that’s an opportunity for something that I need to overcome. That’s a challenge. So that’s good because if, as a result, I overcome that challenge in a sense I have become better. So when hav those things, at least for me personally, when I have those things not go my way, I’m like, awesome. That’d be really, what’s the matter with you. I’m like opportunity for me to overcome that and get better.

Michael Kurland (28:38):

So definitely a great perspective to look at it from a glass half full, for sure. Which you are that guy. So it makes total sense. What are you doing currently to be better professionally? You talked about this health portfolio. I love all of that. What are you doing to be better at that professionally so that our audience can understand why you are the best health advisor in the industry.

Will Maloney (29:08):

It’s interesting when we talk about the professional and the personal. I think it was about seven years ago, I had a team working under me and someone asked about work life balance. I thought that was interesting because there’s also someone that was a mentor of mine. His name was Arnold Patton and he’s 91. Arnold has written about seven or eight books out there. He’s been on Oprah twice. He was a former mentor of mine. When I talked to him about this, he always laughed and you would have appreciated him too. Because he grew up in the European, I think in Bronx though, he had this he had this attitude that would come out that was just so welcomed. He goes, why the heck would anyone ever want to stop working? You know? And the way that he would look at it was your profession is your path. So when you ask about what I’m doing professionally, it’s side by side with what I’m doing personally. So when it comes to profession, my experience is that I have about expanding my own health or as I call it my health capital and expanding it and improving health and opening it up

Will Maloney (30:46):

So I was looking at it as then for me, if my profession has been solely focused on the health segment and there’s definitely no end in terms of improving and focusing on health. It’s a constant process like everything is. When I am expanding my health capital, I’m opening up new aspects of my health and experiencing that. Then I want to share that with other people and that’s how the professional aspect comes in. That becomes a role of a teacher or an educator or in a sense a coach trainer. I’m always expanding that. The more that I expand, I say here’s a new level, a new layer, a new stage here. This is what you need. If you want to move forward. I’ve in a sense gone a little bit further ahead in the learning curve. So that’s where I am professionally. Then I can do the same for others when they’re ready.

Michael Kurland (31:38):

Very nice. I like it. Well, this is the kicker question right here that we try and wrap up the show with every time. So I want to know what, besides being a health advisor, what do you consider yourself an expert at? What’s your best advice for our listeners to become an expert as well? It can be anything from juggling to walking on your hands, whatever it may be.

Will Maloney (32:16):

Interestingly enough, it’s nothing physical, even though I’m in the health industry and been in the training industry for a long time. There’s nothing physical that I would say I’m an expert at. Some people would argue and I’m sure you did about stretching. But you know,  there’s the only methods of the madness behind that is because stretching, if we look at the health as a garden, stretching and flexibility is the soil. If I’m going to get this health thing right, I better make sure that my soil is top quality. So I would say I’m an expert at being able to make sense of complicated topics, discussions, concepts in a very, not only easy to understand way, but in an enjoyable way to understand.  I think you mentioned it earlier was with analogies and that is something that I can tell you. I don’t work at that. If anything, if I do work at it, I don’t know I’m working at it. Other than just trying to come up with something more creative or relatable in terms of how can I explain the arthrokinematic functions of the hip in a way that makes sense to my clients.

Will Maloney (33:10):

So then I’ll come up with – so imagine a tripod and then I’ll just come up with it that way. I would say that that would be, I guess my area of expertise, not by my own understanding, but by the constant reiteration from people I meet and clients and just people are like, Oh, that’s a great analogy. You’re really good at that. So I think that the thing I would recommend to people in terms of how to cultivate expertise in an area is, and which is an area when you asked me earlier about curiosity, this goes back to understanding how, where did I get, where I am and how did I get there? You can go really deep with this on how to become an expert. You could almost call up your parents and be like, what was I good at when I was a kid?

Will Maloney (33:51):

But I think the simplest thing to start is look at what people constantly compliment you on. Constantly. Or not even compliment you on, but ask like, how’d you do that? The part of you that says, why do I think that, why do you think this is special? The part of you that downplays it? I think there’s something there. Because I think ultimately we’re in a sense, hiding the capability of it being phenomenal and opening it up and letting it be something, really a gift to share with other people. To simplify that and to practice what I’m preaching about making analogies my expertise, just pay attention to what you constantly hear your spouse or your loved ones or your coworkers say, Hey, how’d you do that? It doesn’t mean that that one thing is, but put that on your list and just spend some time with it. If it seems to continue to keep coming up and you’re not spending time with it, then that may be a flower that you’re not watering in your own garden.

Michael Kurland (34:52):

There we go. This morning, our analogy was to Bata style exercises to first and second gear of driving a stick shift car. So we do practice what you preach with that as well. Yes, I appreciate it. Well, Will, it’s been great having you on, I really appreciate you taking some time to come on the show and talk about how you are being better. If the audience wants to get a hold of you how can they find you?

Will Maloney (35:19):

So they can hit me up on LinkedIn or online through my website. LinkedIn is just www.linkedin.com forward slash in forward slash William Maloney. If they want to just touch base with me online, it’s just willmaloney.com.

Michael Kurland (35:34):

Great. Well thank you again for coming on. It’s been a pleasure and I’m sure we will see each other soon talking analogies and being better at our next workout session on Monday. Have a good one audience talk to you soon.

Will Maloney:

Thanks Mike.

Michael:

I’d like to take a minute to thank you, our valued listeners. My intention is for this podcast to inspire you, in some way, to be better.  Change starts from within and radiates outward. Therefore, start with being better to yourself and only then will you recognize how to be better others and your community. Thank you for joining us today! If you want to learn more about Branded Group, then visit us at www.branded-group.com. From our website you can follow us on social media. Also, always feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. Until next time, Be Better.